


Eye for an eye

by Wai_ren



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: F/F, F/M, Gen, M/M, Multi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-01-12
Updated: 2015-01-12
Packaged: 2018-03-07 07:01:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 802
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3165719
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Wai_ren/pseuds/Wai_ren
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>-makes the whole world blind. Life kicks down the door to your four-by-four life. Drags you out screaming. Kicks the shit out of you then leaves you on the pavement bleeding. But you get up for the vengeance and the blood and you scream for more.<br/>Modern post-9/11 au.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Eye for an eye

Chapter 1: Flight

“I need to get out of here”

The words wavered in the air, urging a response from the petite young boy next to him. Armin raised his eyes to examine his friends stony expression.

“I know.” He said.

His fingers twirled idly around a brittle leaf, crunching it between the digits.

“It's not going to be easy. This town swallows everyone. One day you're you and I'm me and the next we'll be indistinguishable from the next wrinkled old body wondering just where their life went.”

Eren shook his head, thudding his boots against the stone wall they were hanging over.

“I won't be like them. Why be livestock when there's a whole world out there.”

Translucent green eyes locked onto Armin. “We'll get out of here. I promise”.

\--

9:01am

The attacks came out of nowhere. By the hushed whispers emanating from the wall of oak-like adult figures, Eren knew that something was off. With one hand loosely grappling the strap of the backpack halfway off his shoulder, he trudged to the growing crowd.

The first time the images flickered onto the TV screen, all he could do was stare.

Wasn't that?

Couldn't be.

Twin towers billowing with smoke, collapsing with a hideous crunch like the ash off a cigarette.

The next thought came tiptoeing up to him, clamping its icy palms around his throat.

His mother.

Eren tore his eyes away from the scene. He let the bag fall off his shoulder with a thump. Multicoloured pencils came spewing out from the unzipped opening like colourful entrails. His mother had always warned him to keep things neat. He barely registered the arms at his side. Barely felt the dull whack as the ground came rushing up to him in a blur of elementary blue.

\--

“Eren”

The world came flying back to him in smeared colours. White ceiling. White bedsheets. Then, steely gray eyes that could only belong to one person.

“Eren” the voice repeated.

He felt the warmth of someones palm squeezing against his own.

“M-Mikasa?” His voice seemed to come from another corner of the room. It sounded broken, like someone had rerecorded it on an ancient cassette.

“You've been out for 6 hours” Another voice said.

Armin peered over from beside Mikasa. In the flickering light of the hospital they seemed almost transparent, like holograms.

“Mikasa, wheres mum?” He stuttered out. “Have you called her?”

He felt her grip tighten on his hand.

“Eren... I've been trying. But the whole city is in chaos. Theres been no word from her since this morning.”

“What about her sister? She was with her right? They made it out on time, right?” The questions came galloping out, he had lost all the reigns on his thoughts.

They simmered in the silence. Eren gazed at the duo, their expressions grim and half-formed, teetering on the edge of panic and exhaustion.

“I think I'm going to be sick”

Gripping the edge of the bed, Eren struggled up against the torrent of his companions protests.

“I can't sit here like some fucking comatose. I have to-”

A wave of nausea surged up his throat. Bitter, acidic sludge emptied itself onto the shiny floor.

“Nurse!” The high-pitched cry echoed in his head as he struggled to steady himself.

“M'fine” he muttered, batting away at Mikasas hands. “Lets just get home”

–-

2 days later

“Eren, you need to get some sleep”

The figure slumped beside a black and white avalanche of newspaper clippings made no reply. Green eyes cradled in dark crescents darted like a pendulum under clumps of greased hair. The days after the attack had moved in a peculiar motion. Events became sharper, then less focused with each additional scrap of information, like a photographer that just couldn't focus their camera for long enough to get a clear picture.

Words:

“terrorist”

“hijacking”

“mass casualty”

“disaster”

“religious extremist”

-rang out in their apartment as Eren faded in and out of rooms containing the television and his fathers personal computer.

Mikasa edged her way from the kitchen. When the steaming beverage in her hand elicited no response from the younger boy, she placed it on the floor beside his shrine of clippings.

“You shouldn't torture yourself like thi-”

Her words were shot out of the air when a hand came flaying into the mug of hot chocolate. Droplets of dark, sweet liquid projected into the air and across the floor of text.

“How...Can you be so calm” Eren snarled. “How can you just sit there while those monsters are still alive?” His voice rose with every syllable until he was screaming, words propelled by the spring of repressed thoughts.

His fingers reached out to reel the ashen-faced girl in by her collar.

“I'll kill them” he said .

“Every last one.”

(I know.)

**Author's Note:**

> I was rewatching AOT and this idea came up and I couldn't help but write it down. Depending on how successful this is, there is a possibility i might write more. I've already for some major plot points. In this chapter, Eren is in the 6th grade, Armin is in the 5th and Mikasa is in high school. The following chapters will jump some years.


End file.
